The idea of saying blessings over mitzvot comes from the Rabbis, but there is one mitzvah that the Torah tells us needs a berakhah before it, and that’s the mitzvah of learning Torah!
Sarai becomes Sarah, and Avram becomes Avraham. These changes are set in motion directly by God, and are meant to set these two up for leadership of a new people. But did you know that there is a long Jewish tradition of people changing their own names for other reasons?
Some Jews are not born Jewish but chose to become Jewish through conversion. How can these Jews describe Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov as their ancestors?